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Unfilled IOs

Best practices for managing unfilled insertion orders (IOs) in digital advertising operations.

Document Purpose

The purpose of this document is to provide a centralized process for commercial, digital operations, and finance on best practice around post-booking management. As we bill on planned, rather than actualized data post-campaign, we need a solution to ensure campaigns are booked, delivered, and billed correctly.

Document is in Commercial Toolbox here: Process For Missed Campaigns.docx

What is an Unfilled IO

An unfilled IO is where a campaign was planned by NZME (New Zealand Media & Entertainment), signed off by the client, and booked into our booking system, Media Manager.

Sometimes, and for several reasons, a campaign does not go live, such as:

  • A fault of NZME:
    • Technical issue.
    • Missed creative instruction.
    • Human error.
  • A fault of the client:
    • Not supplying creatives.
    • Requesting a pause.
    • Late change of strategy.

If it is the fault of NZME, we endeavor to run the booked units either partially or in totality as make-good impressions or refund the campaign to the client.

If it is the client's fault, it is within our contract that we can bill them for the missed activity. This is due to the opportunity cost of reserving impressions for the client. On some occasions, we may agree to run this campaign in a different period at the company's discretion.

Issue

When bookings do not run, due to either a fault of the client or a fault of NZME, there may be occasions where either:

  • The client's campaign may be lost and never re-run.
  • The client is not refunded with no delivery of booked units.
  • Or there are no clear communications where the client should or should not be billed.

This can cause issues with post-campaign tracking, revenue reporting, and potential billing disputes.

Solution

Refreshed process below to be communicated to the commercial teams:

  1. EOM “missed creatives” report sent from operations team to the booking team 4th to last working day of the month.
  2. The Booking team are to reach out to those on the list to notify them of campaign charges to the client.
  3. Commercial team are to confirm either of the below to the booking team within 3 business days:
    1. If it has an exception to the cancellation charge rule.
    2. Inform the client it will be charged regardless of not running in-line with our T&Cs.
    3. Creative supplied so campaign can run.
  4. MM team to do either of the below based on the above scenarios:
    1. Cancel the booking in MM with a cancellation note to inform the Ad Ops team.
      1. Ad ops team archive the booking in GAM.
    2. Add note to existing booking re this now being a cancellation fee.
      1. Ad ops team to archive the booking in GAM.
    3. Rebook campaign with new date and push to traffic.
      1. Ad ops receive revised booking, creative and launch campaign with revised details.

Running the Unfilled IO Reporting

To run the Unfilled IO reporting:

Using the GAM Delivery report: https://lookerstudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/786a5c37-5a11-4c23-aad8-ddc59e9d7b0d/page/uS04?pli=1

Ensure you have selected the month you're planning on running. Your filter criteria should include:

Days to End Date > {blank} - This is to allow all campaigns for the month to be selected.

Delivery Status should include all selections:

Pending Screenshot

Ensure you remove any NZME advertisers from selection:

Pending Screenshot

The report can now be downloaded and updated for the following:

  • Test lines can be removed.
  • $0 campaigns can be removed.
  • Ensure all Sales Rep names are current.
  • Remove un-required data so the report is as streamlined as possible.